On acoustic milieus

This essay critiques the notion of soundscape and proposes the concept of acoustic milieus as an alternative conceptual tool to facilitate our understanding of the human condition mediated through and with sound. As a kind of ‘charged atmosphere’ to use Kathleen Stewart’s expression, an acoustic milieu, offers a rich understanding of everyday practice which often seems to be banal, ephemeral and resistant of scholarly interpretation. An acoustic milieu, similar to any charged atmosphere, is not completely natural or neutral; they are sentient, technical and anthropological. They are composed, set in motion and, if not taken care of, puffed out or exhausted away. An acoustic milieu, like a spider web, a kind of ‘exorganismes’, to use Bernard Stiegler’s language, once created, reciprocates a new kind of life. To answer to the call of Gregory Bateson that one needs to think ecologically, an acoustic milieu is a conceptual tool to help one towards perceiving the circuit, rather than just its arc